Andrew Billings Com 307 April 16, 2015

 Size and trends of the gender pay gap.  Explanations for the existence of the gender pay gap. ◦ Pay level of different fields, discrimination, family constraints.  Explanations for why the gender pay gap is shrinking. ◦ Human capital theory, education of women, higher paying positions, men’s wages falling.  Perceptions of the gender pay gap.

 Average difference: $11,500 annually (2014).  Census Bureau: 77 cents on the dollar (2012). ◦ Contention over this figure painting a picture that doesn’t exist.  Men and women entering workforce are closer than ever before (84 cents on the dollar).  There is still a gap left to close, but progress has been made.

 % of women in workplace correlates with partial closing of wage gap.  1890 (4.1% 30 cents) vs (57%, 84 cents).  Labor force currently 47% women.  Millennial women have 74% workforce participation rate.  Men less productive in labor market since 1980s.

 Science and engineering vs. administrative and office assistant jobs.  Low paying jobs typically held by women; waitering, cashiering, bartending.  Women made up 198 of 2,500 of the top paying executive jobs at S&P 500 companies. ◦ CFO example (Wayne State).

 Either hard to quantify statistically, or largely declining.  18% of women report discrimination.  45% of both men and women say men generally favored in society. ◦ 9% say women favored.  Only 60% of women say they earn less than men.

 Most evidence for this explaining the remaining gender wage gap  First establish similarity between men and women entering workplace.  Gap widens again as time spent in career progresses.  Sacrifices made by mothers explain this.  Pay gap may be a symptom of a deficit in responsibility for raising children.  Does being a working parent make it harder to advance? Women say yes, men say no.

 “One’s incentive to invest in training/education is directly proportional to the time one expects to work over one’s lifetime” (Polachek, 2004).  Men and women have increasingly similar perceptions of career. ◦ Increased investment and ROI. ◦ Need to work longer to get higher ROI.  Increased human capital investment by women correlates with shrinking of pay gap.

 Pew Research Center: Millennial women more educated than male counterparts. ◦ 38% of women hold a bachelor’s degree. ◦ 31% of men in that demographic hold one. ◦ 39% of MBAs held by women, likely to increase. ◦ 45% of women enrolled in college. ◦ 38% of men enrolled in college.

 The Guardian: 60% of entry level employees in Fortune 500 companies are women.  Law profession ◦ Women make up 47% of law school students. ◦ Only 31% of lawyer labor force, likely to increase.

 Each wave of men less active in workforce since  Men pursuing less education and making fewer capital investments than women.  Median hourly wage for men down 4% from ◦ Young men median hourly wage down 20%.

 Wage gap has closed a lot in the last 4 decades, especially among professionals. ◦ Why does public opinion not match this? ◦ 61% men 72% women want it addressed more. ◦ 73% men and 75% women saying pay is equal in their workplace.  Statistical anomalous decades of 60s and 70s.  Lack of perspective.

 Gender wage gap does in fact exist.  Explanations include differences in pay level of various fields, discrimination, and family responsibilities.  Gap has closed greatly, for reasons including human capital investments, education, and falling male wages.

 Percentage of men and women who attempt to negotiate a higher salary. ◦ 57% of men. ◦ 7% of women.

 M Amin. (2013, August 6). Is the human capital ‘gender gap’ a matter of experience, education or both? Retrieved from matter-experience-education-or-both  Kasperkevic, J. (April 2014). Equal pay fact sheet: beyond the gender gap of ’77 cents for every dollar’. The Guardian. Retrieved from blog/2014/apr/08/equal-pay-women-fact-sheet-salary-career  Pew Research Center. (2013, December 11). On Pay Gap, Millennial Women Near Parity – For Now. Retrieved from. millennial-women-near-parity-for-now/  Pew Research Center [Pew Research Center]. (2014, January 9). There’s more to the story of the shrinking pay gap. Retrieved from  Polachek, S. (2004, April). How the Human Capital Model Explains Why the Gender Wage Gap Narrowed. IZA DP, Retrieved from